Complaints blamed on greater demand: MSD
"A staggering increase in complaints by Work and Income clients have been written off by a government ministry which blames the increase on more Kiwis using its services.
Since National took office in 2008, the number of complaints about incorrect information being provided by Work and Income has risen by 122 percent - from 537 complaints in 2008 to 1197 this year."
Here is the table:
The first thing I notice is that the number of complaints requiring action has actually dropped from 2,298 in 2008/09 to 2,233 this year. If I were to look at a similar table depicting CYF notifications, I'd be primarily interested in the substantiations as an indicator of actual problems.
The journalist completely ignored the top line though and focused on the worst line - the one that would provide the biggest % increase. Even then, we cannot draw a conclusion because there is no breakdown of the complaints that actually required action.
Next, a journalist seeking to provide balanced information would have requested and published statistics from the period prior to National becoming government.(She may have but they didn't suit her purpose?)
At least each parliamentary representative - government and opposition - was asked for comment.
Carmel Sepuloni duly provides and not unusually shoots herself in the foot in the process.
And it wasn't only beneficiaries having a tough time with Work and Income. "There's a whole lot of New Zealanders out there...like hardworking New Zealanders who should have access to things like childcare subsidies that are getting inaccurate information."[my emphasis]
Could that be 'deserving' New Zealanders?
To be fair the DomPost should be awarded some neutrality points for publishing that comment. Once again it highlights Labour's identity crisis. Who do they represent?
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